Best Laid Plans...
On paper, my outing was simple: Grab my bicycle, Perseverance, visit Garden Home, then head down the Fanno Creek Trail to Derry-Dell Creek, explore a bit, and head home. I never made it, and ended up, by my own will, or perhaps stubbornness, in the distant suburbs of Portland. As I left home southbound on the Fanno creek Trail, I was still sticking to my original plan.
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| A northbound WES crosses SW North Dakota St. in Tigard, OR |
In many ways, a trip on this path always has company of some sort: other people, vehicles on the highways, or perhaps the trains. The trail and the Portland and western Railroad both follow the creek, so the train is a near-constant companion. During rush hour, TriMet runs its WES commuter train south along the trail: you hear the WES cruise through town, digital bell clanging obnoxiously, distinctive horn blaring.
About a mile shy of Tigard, I noticed that the rim of Perseverance's rear tire hit bottom when I jumped a curb: a flat. I hadn’t carried a pump since mine had been lost in the woods on a beach trip. I was stuck.
I had managed to reach Derry Dell Creek, so I decided to explore as much as I could before heading home. I followed a well-blazed trail into the woods towards the creek, but I had only travelled about a hundred feet before I passed hedge clippers, bags of leaves and at least three tents. Someone had blazed this trail deliberately, and probably didn't want to be disturbed. So much for exploring.
I returned to Perseverance. I could patch her tire in the park but I had no way to refill it. My best bet was walking to Tigard Transit Center and catching any combination of transit, including a tempting ride on TriMet's commuter train, WES. In fact, why not ride it AWAY from home to Wilsonville? I had plenty of time. I checked my wallet for cash and started off with my wounded steed in the direction of Tigard.
A Table of Heads
Another WES was departing Tigard northbound as I arrived in town. I got off and walked the remainder of the way to the fair machine, bought fare, and waited. WES stations are pretty barren save for the Interactivator, a series of unlabeled brass heads riding rails inside a steel table. They have them at every stop: words carved into the steel name the characters but don’t tell you which is which, along with a "transporter." The idea, of course, is to pit the characters against each other and form stories about how they interact, but with the train sharing a track with the characters “The sleeper narrowly avoids getting hit by a train while the laugher looks on” is a tempting story to use. Thrice I encountered quicker routes home: a Line 78, Line 42, the new Beaverton bus I never rode, and even a northbound WES. In all three cases, it was a willful decision to stay on the train platform and wait for the train to take me even further from home.
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| The "Interactivator" at the Tigard WES station. The Historic Mask head is in the foreground in front of the train, the upside down head is to the right. |
When the WES finally arrived, I tied up Perseverance in the wheelchair area, and took a seat. There were faces on the train, but none of the extreme examples from the steel game board—and thankfully, no one I know of narrowly avoided getting hit.
WES is a unique experience.
The line southbound to Salem and beyond last saw regular passenger trains in 1933, so prior to TriMet opening WES, the line side scenery had been seen only by railroad employees. It's a fairly quiet and peaceful ride. The powered railcar's engine chugs along as the train glides past neighborhoods, forests, and lakes full to the brim of pond lilies. The train reached Wilsonville, waited a half hour and turned around. As a passenger, you can travel no further. Looking southbound, the Passenger track ends, and the line stretches on into the distance, a set of signals guarding it, the tracks silent and dark. I rode north again, and got off at Hall and Nimbus, waving to a Few people I didn't realize I had befriended, and headed uphill to catch the 56.
Line 42 once more caught me waiting at the bus stop, but I couldn't recall where the 42 went. I needed to go uphill, down Scholls Ferry road. I held up fingers to sign 5-6. he nodded, and then the bus turned, and headed down Scholls Ferry road, in the direction I was hoping to travel. I swore and after waiting a few more minutes, came to the inevitable conclusion that the 42 had--for the second time that day-- tried to save me from my self-induced misadventure. After a twenty-minute walk, I passed the stop the 42 would have dropped me at, much closer to home than the stop I had for the second time refused its assistance.
My bike tire wasn't fixed until the next day, and as of writing this, I still don't have a pump. But I won't forget the coincidental kindness of the Line 42, and if one ever tries to offer me a ride again, I will forsake my stubbornness and hop on . -KP
Bibliography:
Oregon Electric Railway, in the Oregon Encyclopedia
https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oregon_electric_railway/#.XQLSNNNKjm0
The Interactivators: Sculpture for TriMet WES Commuter Rail by MARY PRIESTER
https://trimet.org/pdfs/store/Interactivators.pdf
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Bibliography:
Oregon Electric Railway, in the Oregon Encyclopedia
https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oregon_electric_railway/#.XQLSNNNKjm0
The Interactivators: Sculpture for TriMet WES Commuter Rail by MARY PRIESTER
https://trimet.org/pdfs/store/Interactivators.pdf
Like my content? Consider leaving a comment, and/or sharing!
If you would like to receive updates when I write a new article, send an email to kramerpaper@gmail.com, with the subject line: "Subscribe"
